‘The Closer’ Alive with Fireworks

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

Thank you, Jon Tenney.

You told us it was coming.

We couldn’t wait for it to arrive

And boy, it didn’t disappoint.

In case you’re just tuning in, the anticipation for last night’s episode of The Closer, titled “Live Wire,” started over a month ago when PTR spoke exclusively with Jon Tenney about all-things Special Agent Fritz Howard. At the time, he let us know this particular episode was going to have some serious fireworks between Fritzy and BJ – ones that he himself really enjoyed portraying given it called a lot of things into question about the nature of their relationship.

He wasn’t kidding.

The BJ – lies – to – Fritzy – he – gets – pretty – irked – let’s – her – have – it moment will be a classic for years to come.

Have we ever seen BJ read the riot act like that?

We questioned her methods in last season’s Christmas special (“Next of Kin”), but outright ripping BJ a new one was … well, new.

Or rare.

Yet deserved.

And there is no one better to do it that Fritzy.

I get now why “Live Wire” is considered one of Jon’s all-time favorite episodes - even if it is part of this new season



The Case

An out-of-work real estate broker (Ben Masters) who decides to do some drug trafficking moonlighting only to wind up dead at the hands of his buddy who set him up to do the drug trafficking in the first place.

The kicker, of course, is the FBI had been tracking said drug trafficking ring for umpteen months, looking to get a break in the case by having somebody – anybody – flip on the leader of the gang. Hence BJ and Fritz enter into the case together whereby BJ agrees to let Fritz takeover her sting operation to catch Ben's friend killer (Dean Murphy) whilst Fritz gives her the big ol’ black book on all the other really super-bad guys that are in the ring.

Problem is, BJ does not do what she said she would do.

She takes the sting and the suspect, and convinces him not to take the FBI deal, thus, ruining Fritzy’s chance with his investigation and effectively compromising him in every conceivable way.



The Confrontation

As much as I love the fact BJ always "closes" the deal, she can do so at the expense of everything else – people, procedure, protocol.

That isn’t a good thing.

She gets tunnel vision to the point of fault, and she can cross lines without even thinking there was a line. Actually, she sometimes doesn’t even acknowledge there is a line.

She did so in this ep. Just like she did in “Next of Kin.”

By comparison, as much as Detective Lilly Rush over on Cold Case has turned into something less than stellar these days, I have never once questioned her moral compass. As devoted to her job as she is, Lilly hasn’t ever gone over that line. The Joseph thing doesn’t count for me given she was trying to protect the identity of a potential witness and not get him killed before he could point the finger at the bad guys. I actually think BJ would’ve done the same thing – or perhaps even gotten more creative in buying necessary time. We’ve seen Brenda do it before, which makes Lilly’s misstep seem like regular protocol by Priority Homicide standards.

That said, I’ve now questioned BJ’s methods twice.

She knew what she was doing last night, and yet she still lied to Fritz even when he called her on it. He was right to rip her a new one and point to her double-standard: do as I say, not as I do.

And all of this is why I continue to love this show. We see the dynamic between of these two wonderful characters in all their good and bad moments, which is how life is. You disagree, you fight, you argue, you call each other out … and if you’re in it for the long haul, you work it out. Together.



The Other Confrontation

Things are just not going too well with Sergeant Gabriel and Detective Daniels, are they? Looks like they broke up a few weeks ago (gee, could ya’ tell?), so the bloom is indeed off the rose. How OMG! was that moment when she lost it in the murder room, or when they were having it out in the interview room? I did want to punch Gabriel in the face for his Daniels – needs – to – transfer – out – of – Priority – Homicide spiel. Like, yeah, it’s her fault not yours, is that it?

Poor BJ. As if she needs to worry about one more thing. Needless to say, things are rather awkward right at the moment, and as such, I’m going to have to agree with BJ: this is why people should not date at work. Too much fishing from the company pier, and when things go bad they go really bad.



The Cornball

G.W. Bailey is right: lots of old man, I wear-custom-orthotic-shoes jokes.

And Lieutenant Tao with his grooming kit turned make believe blood spatter what ‘cha ma call it magic evidence potion thing. Do you think he called Dexter for pointers?

Or how about Buzz and Provenza watching the Daniels v. Gabriel re-match complete with popcorn from the video room.

Too. Darn. Funny.

And how welcome was the humor after last week's "Cherry Bomb."



The CC Connection

Note that the actress who portrayed Trisha Masters (Ben’s wife) also portrayed DeeDee in the second season Cold Case episode, “Mind Hunter.” And any time we can have a connection to that brilliant legend fantastic genius episode, it’s got to be good.



New episodes air Mondays at 9 p.m. on TNT. You can also watch full episodes of the show anytime over on the show’s official Web site.